By Nury Vittachi

Monday, 05 February 2007

End of the affair

THE AFFAIR of the backstabbed crime writer appears to be reaching its denouement. The meeting at which the festival board was set to sack co-founder Nury Vittachi was scheduled to take place this morning. Vittachi did not attend, but sent a letter by fax and email to the board members. If you want to move along to happier things, ignore this posting. If you want to see what it said, read on.

Dear board members,

I won’t be coming to this morning’s meeting.

There’s no point. After my experience at the previous meeting, I realize that there’s no genuine desire to discuss the matters that are listed on the agenda. It was so plain the last time that the purpose was merely to rubber-stamp the decision that you’d already made in secret. That’s not the way I like to operate, nor was it the way the festival ran in its earlier, happier days.

I have made my feelings clear about ethical matters and racial matters, and about my dismay about the board’s reluctance to take these concerns seriously.

I urge you to allow Asian authors to be part of the administration of the prize.

I urge you to allow Asian authors to be part of the judging panel of the prize.

I urge you to open up the festival board to people in the Hong Kong book sector with no connections to Paddyfield and Chameleon.

I urge you to have the decency to acknowledge, in your press materials and websites, the people who conceived the festival and the prize.

I urge you to avoid making decisions in which business decisions guide – or even appear to guide – festival decisions.

I urge you to allow people to express honest concerns about business ethics, or about racial matters, without shutting them out.

I urge you to talk to the many wise and decent people who are or have been involved in this festival – your sponsors, your founders, your fellow publishers, the poets and writers of Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia, and learn from them that there are other ways to operate than with hostility and intransigence. After your decision today, it is likely that none of the founders of the festival will remain on the board. It’s a shame. I think it is better to share each other’s visions than appropriate them.

You are welcome you to play a role in future literary endeavors with which I am involved. My door remains open.